WESTFIELD – A Ludlow woman is accused of stealing more than $18,000 from her employer, an auto body shop in Feeding Hills.

Jennifer Asta-Ferrero, 33, is charged in Westfield District Court with larceny over $250 by a single scheme, larceny over $250 from a disabled person and possession of a class E drug. At Asta-Ferrero’s Thursday arraignment, Judge Philip Contant set bail at $2,500.

According to the report by Agawam police, the owner of Vermette Auto Body in Feeding Hills called police April 28 and said he believed an employee, Asta-Ferrero, stole from him.

Asta-Ferrero was hired in 2012 and was responsible for the business’s bills, gaining access to a Capital One credit card and the business’s bank account, the report said.

The shop owner became suspicious when a Capital One representative called the business and specifically asked to speak with the owner rather than Asta-Ferrero. Shortly after this, Asta-Ferrero left the business, saying she had to deal with an emergency, the report said.

The business owner said Asta-Ferrero sent him an email the next day saying that she would not return to work because of racial comments made by a coworker, the report said.

After working with a Capital One fraud investigator, police found that Asta-Ferrero had used company resources to pay $18,355.73 on a personal credit card between October 2012 and April 2014, the report said.

After a search warrant was returned in July, police interviewed Asta-Ferrero Aug. 20 and arrested her. Officers found 43 Zofran pills in a bottle labeled for Clonazepam on Asta-Ferraro’s person, the report said. Asta-Ferraro said she had a prescription, and officers told her she could show it in court.

The owner of the body shop has Parkinson’s disease, which requires him to leave the region during the cold weather of winter, the report said, which is why Asta-Ferrero was left in charge of finances.